GOIANIA, Brazil – They waited a long time for this fight to become a reality, so maybe it’s only fitting that Cezar Ferreira and Daniel Sarafian made use of all 15 minutes of their cage time in a back-and-forth battle that was originally slated as the finale of the first “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil” in 2012.

In the end, two of the three judges sided with Ferreira, who took home the split-decision victory (28-29, 30-27, 30-28), much to the dismay of the crowd.

Most of the fight saw the shorter, stockier Sarafian trying to bull his way in for one power punch after another. Ferreira, meanwhile, avoided them when he could, ate them when he had to, and used takedowns and stifling top control to slow the action down in the later rounds.

“He’s a very tough guy, a very strong guy, and I tried to do some moves and I couldn’t do what I had to do,” Ferreira said via a translator after the bout, before assuring the dissatisfied crowd that both he and Sarafian “will make you very happy” in the future.

Ferreira (7-2 MMA, 3-0 UFC) remains perfect in the UFC thanks to the narrow decision win. Sarafian (8-4 MMA, 1-2 UFC) has now lost two of his past three.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

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